Google drops hint about games coming for Google+

The company temporarily posted help pages confirming the existence of an upcoming Games Stream. The mention, and the page it linked to, have since been removed.

The Games Stream is apparently a social-style news stream that contains messages related to games that you play on Google’s social network. Google+ has gained more than 10 million users and 20 million visitors in the last three weeks. However, games are not currently part of the network.

Whenever they debut, games are likely to be a popular app on Google+. Games are the most popular apps on rival social network Facebook, and Google will definitely need games in order to challenge Facebook in the long run.

As for games on Google+, a spokesman for Google said, “Google+ is an ongoing project and this is just the beginning. We plan to add a lot of features and functionality to Google+ over time.”

But in a (now pulled) help page for Google+, the company said, ”If you’re looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream.”

Other hints have also been discovered about games on Google+.

At the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle this week, games on Google+ were a frequent topic of conversation. But game developers said they could not provide any details yet, and Google has yet to show developers an applications programming interface, or a set of instructions that would tell the developers how to make games for Google+. That means that game developers are likely to make games for the Google social network, but the rollout is not in the immediate future.

The topic also came up because Zynga revealed in a filing this week that Google was an investor in the company. Zynga makes the most popular games on Facebook. Google+ might also be used to bring Android game results into a user’s PC-based game stream.